Tuesday morning, Northwestern University released an official statement confirming the death of Weinberg sophomore Rebecca Quint. According to William Banis, Vice President for Student Affairs, Rebecca was found dead in her dorm room at Foster-Walker Complex late Monday night.
Residents of Foster-Walker reported Quint’s disappearance to a Community Assistant on Monday night, said Alan Cubbage, Vice President of University Relations. They expressed concern that Quint, who lived on the third floor of Foster-Walker West, House One, had not been seen since Saturday.
At around 11:30 p.m., a student employed by Residential Life conducted a room check and found Quint dead. University police responded immediately, and then contacted the Evanston Police Department. Her family has now been notified and is on their way, Cubbage said.
Commander Tom Guenther of the Evanston Police department was hesitant to give a definite statement as to the cause of death, but he was quick to emphasize that, “preliminarily” no foul play was indicated, and that there did not “appear to be any danger to the Northwestern community at large.” He went on to say that Evanston and University Police were working together on the investigation.
Later in the day, the Cook County Medical Examiner released the results of an autopsy, which confirmed the death as a suicide by asphyxiation. Quint was found in her room with a plastic bag over her head.
At around three o’clock on Tuesday morning, police were seen to remove a stretcher from Foster-Walker Complex. University officials, including Dean of Students Burgwell Howard and Area Coordinator Jason Hanson, were on hand but declined to make a statement.
Rebecca Quint, 19, was from Concord, Mass., and a former student at Concord Carlisle High School.
In an email, Dean Howard said that there was nothing to indicate that Quint was having difficulty at Northwestern.
“She appeared to have a close circle of friends, but did not appear to be engaged in major organizations,” Howard wrote. “She was a strong student and actively involved with her academics.”
When asked to comment on what effect this will have on the Northwestern community, Howard said: “We each have a duty to the other [members of our] community to look out for one another, to offer assistance, or to call upon the resources at the University (CAPS, Chaplains, Academic Advisors, Res. Life Staff, Student Affairs, Women’s Center etc) when things feel overwhelming.”
Staff members from Counseling and Psychological Services, University Residential Life and the University Chaplain’s office will be available at Foster-Walker at 8:30 p.m. tonight. CAPS also may be contacted at 1-2151 or 1-8100 after hours.
Thanks to commenter “urdumb” and “an honest mistake…” for pointing out our errors – the Dean of Students is Burgwell Howard and the police spokesperson is Commander Tom Guenther. The corrections have been made; NBN regrets the mistake.